Latest plan could bring 250 more apartments

City council candidate John Watson is trying to organize his neighbors to oppose the Meadows at Platte Valley, a 250-unit apartment complex planned for what’s now an empty field south of his neighborhood at Mineral Avenue and Platte Canyon Road.

“The residents of Meadowbrook generally agree that the present plans for rezoning for 250 apartments at Meadows at Platte Canyon do not serve the neighborhood,” he said, citing increased traffic, hampered views and lower residential property values as concerns. “The property was zoned retail since 1985, and this presents higher density than the neighborhood can support.”

Watson has aligned with Citizens for Rational Development, a group organized around opposing the Broadstone project that developers have in mind for the southwest corner of Littleton Boulevard and Bemis street, on the site of the old sheriff’s building. After dozens of CRD members spoke out against that project, the Littleton Planning Board voted to not recommend approval. Littleton City Council is set to make the final decision on July 30.

Evergreen Devco, based in Phoenix, wants to rezone 13 of the 16 acres adjacent to the Pinnacle at Mountain Gate apartments from commercial to residential. The company plans retail for the other three acres, on the northwest portion of the site along Mineral Avenue.

This is just one of four multifamily projects currently under review by city staff. The Villages of Belleview proposes 346 units at Federal Boulevard and Belleview Avenue, Broadstone at Littleton has come down from 325 to 250 units, and Littleton Village on the old Marathon Oil property expects to have about 500 units in addition to about 400 single-family homes.

The Littleton Village plan sailed through its planning-board public hearing with virtually no opposition, as did the 385-unit Littleton Commons plan that council approved in March for County Line Road and Lucent Boulevard.

Neighbors of the Villages of Belleview are expressing initial distaste for the project, as did neighbors of Nevada Place. Despite vociferous objections by residents, city council voted in February to let Nevada Place build its second phase as 72 one-bedrooms instead of 37 two-bedrooms as originally planned.

All told, that’s about 1,800 apartment units under consideration or construction throughout the city so far this year.

Littleton Planning Board is set to make its recommendation on the Meadows at Platte Valley project on July 22. From there it will go to city council, which has the final say.